The 23rd installment of the 007 franchise, starring Daniel Craig as the suave superspy and directed by Sam Mendes, was an instant hit with audiences and critics alike upon its release in October (12), landing the biggest seven-day gross takings of all time in the U.K.
It has now broken all box office records by raking in $150.8 million (£94.2 million) in 40 days, overtaking the previous record held by Avatar, which earned just over $150 million (£94 million) in 2009.
In a statement, Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli write, "We're overwhelmed with gratitude to the cinema-going audiences in the U.K. who have made Skyfall the highest grossing film of all time.
"We are very proud of this film and thank everybody, especially Daniel Craig and Sam Mendes, who have contributed to its success."

The film, which stars Daniel Craig in the most successful Bond film in the franchise's history, marked the fifth time Purvis and Wade have joined forces to write a 007 movie since 1999's The World Is Not Enough.
The British screenwriting duo spoke about their time working on Bond movies at a writing masterclass in the Al Rayyan Theater at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival in Qatar on Monday (19Nov12).
Purvis says, "When we were originally asked to come in to meet the Bond people, we weren't expecting to be walking straight into a meeting with Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson (Bond producers). We certainly were not expecting to be kept around for 15 years. We were going to stop with Quantum of Solace, but it's good to go out on a high with Skyfall."
Wade adds, "We're very happy to have done five Bond movies, I think we've gotten it to a good place. I know that (Skyfall co-writer) John Logan and Sam Mendes have come up with a plot for another one, which takes the pressure off (us) because these films take up a lot of time."

In 1962, film title designer Maurice Binder conceived and shot the first 007 opening sequence, which opened with the now-iconic image of James Bond stepping into the gun barrel and taking a lethal shot. Binder's work is instantly recognizable to both Bond fans and casual moviegoers alike, but Daniel Kleinman, who stepped into the role of franchise title designer after GoldenEye, says the master isn't fully appreciated even to this day. "I think he's underrated," says Kleinman. "People love his work, but what one has to remember is that he invented a kind of visual language that is immediately recognizable as Bond, secret agents, excitement, and sexiness. If you see a silhouette of a girl with flames keyed into it, everyone in the world knows what that image is. He invented it."
Kleinman, who helmed the title sequence for the most recent Bond adventure Skyfall, entered the crosshairs of Bond producers after helming a Binder-inspired music video for Glady Knight's "Licence to Kill." He was an obvious choice to take over the role when Binder passed away before the making of Pierce Brosnan's first outing. From an early age, Kleinman was enamored by Binder's work — he recalls his 14-year-old self being quite taken by the shadowy women on display in the early films ("I wish that had been a bit slower") — and that respect made taking on responsibilities for the franchise all the more difficult.
"It's always a tricky balance when you're dealing with something that's a language and a heritage that everybody loves and knows and is familiar with," says Kleinman. "One can't throw the baby out with the bathwater. You have to have certain elements that I think, to make it feel like a James Bond film, have to be there." Even today, Kleinman's strives to to find the essence of Binder's work and extrapolate upon it. "It's a fine balance between the old and the new. It is a very subtle thing to put your finger on, but it's a source of lavishness and excitement. An almost psychedelic sort of thing, a graphic thing, sexy, tongue-in-cheek — all those things balanced. Guns, girls, all those elements."
While the iconography established by Binder is key, Kleinman also looks to the legend's innovation behind the camera. "He was quite fascinated with modern techniques and technology. I think he used the laser when lasers were first invented. He used it in a title sequence. He used florescent paints. All sorts of mad experiments that made it seem different and fresh."
Kleinman begins work on his title sequences before the film's accompanying theme song has been recorded or even written. Instead of taking cues from the mood of the music, the director first tears through the script for inspiration. "It takes about six to nine months," says Kleinman. "I read [an early draft of the script] and come up with thoughts. I don't want to just create a jumble of images that mean nothing. It has to have a certain relevance." In the case of Skyfall, Kleinman created "loads of sketches" for director Sam Mendes and producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who left it to his discretion on how to hold the attention of the audience.
"One of the toughest things about the sequence is to try and not over complicate it," says Kleinman. "It's a long sequence, four minutes." Along with keeping the focus sharp, Kleinman also battles with a history of Bond title knockoffs. "The language that Maurice invented and that I've tried to riff on and take forward, has been ripped off effectively by millions. You see it in book covers, magazine covers, other movies, TV series — all of these things have taken from that language. And a lot of them don't do it very well, and they look cheesy."
For Skyfall, Kleinman wanted to utilize star Daniel Craig and take him through an impressionistic journey through the film's events, capitalizing on the image of Bond sinking in the opening and carrying it throughout the sequence. The director notes the use of bullet holes in the sequence as an example of his goals: "Instead of making them realistic, I tried to make them look like paper that was torn open. It became more like a graphic thing than a literal thing."
Achieving the fluid effects took a tremendous amount of time and effort, Kleinman bringing his concept to all on his own before handing it off to his team of artists. "I work out the ideas and the sequence of events and transitions — what I want to happen in it. Then I physically edit a storyboard, so it becomes a little cartoon of the sequence," says Kleinman. "The effects are so complicated it takes an enormous amount of people to create the actual visuals. They create liquids, elements of blood and liquid, a lot of it is computer animated."
CG is heavily employed in the making of a modern Bond title sequence, but the effects heavy treatment still requires Kleinman to shoot a great deal of footage. "A lot of it is physical, real elements. The guns… I built a tunnel for a recurring element of the sequence." Kleinman points to the underwater photography as the most demanding aspect of the shoot. He recalls directing the women who had to submerge themselves for the sequence. "[I would say,] 'Would you mind taking your clothes off and jump in the pool?' Weirdly, I'm a little bit prudish. I find it slightly embarrassing! But they know what they're up for. It's very professional."
If the underwater material was the most complicated, then the footage with 007 himself was the most intimidating for Kleinman. "I had to film him do the walk for the gun barrel," says Kleinman. "Finding oneself directing Daniel Craig doing the gun barrel for James Bond… that's a heavy responsibility [laughs]. It's an image everyone in the world knows. You think, 'I can't screw this up.'
Kleinman has a passion for crafting the Bond title sequences and he hopes they never go out of fashion. He sees them as, not just a memorial to the work of Maurice Binder, but works of art that we rarely see today. "It's tricky. It's like B-films, the support feature. Something from another era. Perhaps title sequences aren't thought of as art pieces in their right anymore."
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
[Photo Credit: Sony Pictures]
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After honing his skills as a stuntman on GoldenEye, The World Is Not Enough, and Tomorrow Never Dies (among a variety of non-Bond blockbusters), Gary Powell returned to the 007 franchise as the mastermind of all things action. As a stunt coordinator, Powell works with the Bond directors — Martin Campbell, Marc Forster, and now Sam Mendes on this month's new release, Skyfall — to devise stunts that work in the context of the the suave spy's globetrotting missions.
"When we started off with Casino Royale, Martin [Campbell] set the tone straight away," says Powell. "The opening sequence was great because it was real." Powell says believability is the prime goal when constructing stunts for a Bond movie. The character may seem superheroic, but the mission is to never let the audience forget that he's a regular guy with luck on his side. "Everything we do now, we put it right on the edge of a-person-could-actually-survive-this. If everything worked out right for him. We literally push it to the edge of human capabilities."
Powell worked closely with Skyfall director Sam Mendes and long-time Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, who also trusted him with adding his own ideas into the script. Powell points to the film's complex opening sequence, a scene that involves a car chase and a big fight on top of a moving train. Born from a way to introduce us to the characters — namely, the Skyfall version of Bond, and Naomie Harris' character Eve — Powell says the digger sequence was a moment when Mendes and company stepped back and let the action-minded man do his work.
"Everything you see with the train is real," says Powell, who worked with a number of different skilled stuntmen to pull off the feat. For the beginning of the sequence, stunt driver Ben Collins was enlisted to man Bond and Eve's Land Rover — even though the actors would be seen in closeup driving the vehicle. "Basically, I was on the roof in what's called a pod system," says Collins. "It's like a metal cage with the steering and the pedals and the gears, so that basically I'm driving it from the roof with the actress underneath. Then we can really get the characters right into the heart of the action." Collins explains that hydraulic lines divert the steering to the roof, so that any motions made by Harris would be disconnected. He jokes, "It's pretty spooky for the actress."
When it comes to Bond-centric stunts later in the scene, it's all Daniel Craig. "Obviously, we have safety cables when Daniel is up there, but Daniel is up there," says Powell. "He ran up the arm and [it's him] on the train fighting." Powell praises Craig for tackling as many action beats as the production's insurance will allow him to attempt. It's a rare quality in a star, but Powell thinks it defines the actor's Bond films. "He feels like he [would be] cheating the audience. It's not an ego thing. Like, 'Look at me up there!' When the audience pays their money and goes to see the film, he wants them to know it's him up there."
Continuing to add to the reality, Skyfall shot its foot chase through The Tube, London's underground subway, on an actual platform that was no longer used by the public. "Originally, we were looking to use the real underground and having restricted access to it," says Powell. "But it became apparent that if, for any reason, something wasn't working, be it camera or lighting or anything, we wouldn't complete the sequence in the time allocated to us." Still, rigging a real life space for a Bond stunt — even when unoccupied by bystanders — presents a challenge. The space was equipped to send Bond flying down the escalator. Delicately flying. "You have to be respectful of the building. You can't start hacking holes in things. Makes it complicated."
One scene that was too complicated to shoot on location was Bond's infiltration of a Chinese skyscraper and subsequent fist fight — a sequence that sends Patrice the assassin flying out of a window. Bond stealthily grabs hold of the bottom of an elevator to follow Patrice, an effect that involved camera trickery but was no less demanding of Craig. "He does dangle," says Powell. "He's never standing, even if it's a blue screen set." To pull off the brutal brawl, Powell worked with fight coordinator Nicola Berwick, fight trainer Roger Yuan, and stunt double Damien Walters to choreograph a quarrel that would suit Mendes' vision. "We would put things together, video it, and show [Sam]. He says, 'I like that. I'm not too sure about that. Can you do this? Can you do that?' An ongoing process of building it up until we get exactly what he wants. And then when we turn up on the day, it's exactly what he wants. No making it up — that costs time and money."
While Powell avoids putting himself in harm's way these days ("I used to bounce really well when I was in my twenties. By the end of my thirties I wasn't bouncing as good."), his lengthy résumé makes him an asset to the filmmakers behind Bond movies. He knows action, but he also understands storytelling. "[Sam] had a very clear idea of how he wanted the action to be. Which is good — it wasn't just stunts," says Powell. "They have to make sense in the scene. Bond can't be doing something then out of the blue something turns up that doesn't fit in with the scene that's going on. Trying to keep it as real as possible. Making it believable."
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
[Photo Credit: Sony Pictures (4)]
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This article contains minor spoilers for Skyfall.
A cinematographer's job may be to bring the visuals of a film to life through lighting and camera movement, but for Roger Deakins it's rarely about finding "the right look." Hisunique philosophy to shooting feature films — less photographer than interpreter of words — may be the reason why Deakins' career includes some of the best dramas of the last 20 years. It also makes him a unique pick to shoot the latest James Bond blockbuster, Skyfall.
"I'm not an obvious choice to do an action movie," says Deakins. "That's not what I've been doing." Beginning his career in documentary, Deakins transitioned to feature films like 1984 and Sid and Nancy. In the '90s he found his most lucrative collaborators, the Coen Brothers, for whom he shot Barton Fink, Fargo, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, No Country for Old Men and more. "I don't see images when I read a script. I see characters. I'm interested in character development. The arc of the story."
After teaming with director Sam Mendes on 2005's Jarhead and 2009's Revolutionary Road, Deakins was enlisted by the theater-director-turned-filmmaker to man the camera to take on duties for Skyfall. "Sam came to L.A. one time, we went for a walk on the beach, and he basically talked to me about the script, his thoughts on what he thought he could do with the franchise," says Deakins. Surprisingly, Mendes' hope was to maintain the style they he and Deakins honed on their previous, smaller scale dramas. "There's a danger when you do action movies, they all end up looking the same. End up being coverage. People do great stunts… big budget movies are trying to one up each other, move the camera in a more audacious kind of way. But that's not where we came from at all."
Deakins grew up watching Bond, but his goal was never to pay homage or feel indebted to the 50 year history of the series. "I think each sequence is done differently," says Deakins. "The heavy action we shot very simply, with one or two handheld cameras. I think you can get too caught up in technique. You can lose the plot, really." When it comes to shooting set pieces, Deakins stays away from the manic style of many modern blockbusters. Technology allows him to move the camera like a madman, but he doesn't. "If [the performance and script] are not inherently exciting then you're not going to do anything with a camera. The camera reacts to what's in front of it. I react to the actors."
Mendes, while not an action director by trade, had the same sensibilities as his cinematographer when it came to capture the physical moments of Skyfall. "Something like the one shot where they're fighting and [Patrice the assassin] falls out of the skyscraper, that was an idea Sam wanted very early on," says Deakins. "He didn't want to do it in a huge amount of cuts. He wanted this very cold, graphic shot that encompassed most of the action in one." Deakins notes that Skyfall's footchase through The Tube, London's subway system, is done in the same manner, with the final money shot — a car crashing derailing and crashing through brick walls — composed in static camera shots.
To maintain control over the lighting and framing of everything in Skyfall, Deakins and Mendes decided to build sets and shoot a majority of the film at Pinewood Studios, an enormous soundstage complex that's an integral part of Bond history (the studio even has a building dubbed "the 007 stage" in honor of the franchise). After traveling many of their international locations in hopes of finding suitable locations, Deakins admits that, more often than not, it made sense for Skyfall to shoot back home in England. "We wanted to shoot there but it became impractical," says Deakins. "We decided visually it made more sense to construct these things in studio." Originally, these sequence where Bond follows Patrice the assassin up to the top of a Shanghai high-rise, and later travels by boat the gambling town of Macau, were all to be shot on location in China. Instead, the filmmakers recreated them at Pinewood. "The idea of shooting that 59 floors up at night in Shanghai… it wasn't going to happen. We wouldn't have gotten the graphic look, the great big signs."
By faking many of the interiors, Deakins captures an image that would be in possible out in the open but are necessary for the drama inherent in Bond's tale. "There are certain sequences that benefit from making them dark and mysterious. There's such a variety of locations and looks and color. Such a wide palette to play with."
Deakins and Mendes have both shown fearlessness in their films when it comes to playing with shadows. Skyfall's grand finale, a shootout teased in the trailers that ends with a mansion in flames, is both a perfect example of their untraditional tactics and one of the film's greatest technical challenges. "We had a sequence in No Country for Old Men which was going from evening into night, dusk to true night, and we had to make it blend," says Deakins. "So I was thinking that when we were shooting sequence in Skyfall. The scale of it as well, it's like a Western. When we were shooting exteriors, Sam said, 'let's shoot it like a Western.' Like a Peckinpah movie or a John Ford movie. Let action play in the frame."
To pull off the set piece, Deakins turned to every trick in the book. Apparently lighting a scene where a helicopter crashes and a building burns down all in one setting is no easy feat. "[Production Designer] Dennis Gasner built the house and then we burnt it. It's like a shell of a house. So you're mixing an interior in a stage with an exterior on location and mixing it in with a model." Then there was the vehicular component: "The helicopter was partially live, with a search light and everything, but part of it was a model. A very large model. It worked quite well!"
Skyfall marks the first James Bond film to be shoot digitally (an Arri Alexa for the camera nuts out there), and it took some convincing on Deakins part for Mendes and producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson to go that route. "I was talking to Sam about the film and how much night work and lowlight work there would be, and I thought, 'maybe I should suggest shooting digitally.' Sam hadn't shot digitally. I showed him some of In Time and he was quite taken." Deakins says with only two digital films under his belt, he's still learning about the new technology, but even for his collaborators, the format is quite helpful. "You see it on set. You see what's recorded. And for Sam and the actors, it means you can keep the camera running longer."
Deakins' cinematography innovation may not be apparent to the untrained eye — although, really: beautiful is beautiful — but for some lucky audience members, they'll get to see James Bond in a whole new way that the photographer is quite eager for people to check out: IMAX. The movie wasn't shot for the large-scale format, but it turns out Deakins' camera choice made opening up the frame an easy option. "I don't really like framing for two formats' (we basically shot [widescreen] 2.35 and IMAX is like 1.90). But then I realized we were shooting with a 4:3 camera, the chip is 4:3. So we kept the frame clear to 1.90, and I basically had the IMAX in mind. There was very little that had to be done for IMAX. It's not an extraction from the 2.35 film. It's using the whole chip. You're recording a bigger image."
For Deakins, Skyfall opened the door to lots of new challenges and techniques, but what he savored most from the experience was shooting back in his home country after years of working in Hollywood. "I've shot in London a lot, but not for many years. The idea of shooting London and shooting underground London, subterranean, that's really great. We scouted all these Victorian tunnels, underground reservoirs. It was amazing to see."
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2012 will end with two major James Bond milestones: the 50th anniversary of the series (Dr. No was released on Oct. 5, 1962) and the release of the franchise' 23rd entry, Skyfall. Even with a sexy lifestyle, blockbuster action and genuine charm, Bond's lengthy lifespan seems downright impossible. How does one character last this long?
According to Skyfall producer Barbara Broccoli, who spoke to Hollywood.com for the EPIX documentary Everything Or Nothing: The Untold Story of 007, Bond has remained a pop culture staple thanks to his timeless source material, novels written by author Ian Fleming that were first brought to life by her father, Albert "Cubby" Broccoli. "[Cubby] always said, 'Whenever you're stuck, go back to Fleming.' When we're in story conferences working on the script, we bear that in mind. Fleming provides a solution."
For the new Broccoli describes her upbringing as one closely tied to the Bond franchise. Spending time with her father meant spending time on the sets of 007 productions — a crash course in making movies that would eventually help her produce her own. Cubby segued from his role as the franchise's main producer after 1989's Licence to Kill. His daughter, along with stepson Michael G. Wilson, stepped up from Associate Producer to take over for 1995's GoldenEye. "There was some trepidation about stepping into the role, but I was excited," says Broccoli. "The thing I learned from the my father was the passion and the commitment. So I brought that to the job. And my father was there for me — a guiding force."
While Broccoli applauds Cubby for holding the Fleming books on a pedestal, she also suggests her father was already ready to collaborate and react to great ideas. "We've always had a feeling in the making of these films that good ideas come from all kinds of people — in particular, the tried and true tested crew of technicians and artists that work on these films," says the producer. "I think all the films reflect their times, and I think they change with the times, and I think with each change of actor, the character of Bond evolves. It's all of these things that contribute to the longevity of the series. Not being frightened of taking risks, and not being frightened to alter with the times and with new actors and directors."
Much of that change is reverting back to the tone of books. Broccoli recalls casting Timothy Dalton, an actor the Bond team pursued for years before for finally nabbing him for The Living Daylights. The actor agreed to tackle Bond as long as the material was closer to Fleming's original works. "The Living Daylights was part of a short story collection. We took some elements of that," says Broccoli. "[He] wanted to make his Bond more realistic. I think he was ahead of his time in terms of reinventing the character."
At the time, the tonal shift didn't sit well with Bond audiences, and Broccoli even admits that Dalton's next turn in the character reinvention may have been a misstep on the producers' part. "When we did Licence to Kill, that was a lot more violent," says Broccoli. "It was the first one that got a 15-rating in the UK, and I think we overstepped the mark there, in terms of going a bit too far into the realism. So that's something we're always struggling with. When to be realistic, and if so, how realistic and how much."
Not only did the time eventually come for 007 to take on a grittier tone, but in the wake of 9/11, the zeitgeist eventually demanded it. Broccoli recalls shooting Die Another Day in 2001 ("Very much a fantastical interpretation of the Bond universe,") and realizing the franchise was in the need of a change. "We then took our breath afterward and said, 'What do we do now?' It just didn't seem right to be so fantastical in a world of danger and high stakes. Fortunately, as a result of the litigation that had been going on, we got the rights to Casino Royale, the holy grail of the Bond lexicon."
Casino Royale falling back into the hands Bond company EON Productions opened the door to everything Broccoli believes the Bond franchise needed in the early 2000s: a new tone, a new style, and a new James Bond. A challenge to film, but one the team was ready to take. "It's a very tough book," says Broccoli. "The woman [Bond] loves betrays him and commits suicide. He goes through one of the most horrific tortures known to man." Although portraying the novel's events in a PG-13 manner harkened back to the Licence to Kill days, Broccoli says she never had a doubt that her team couldn't pull off Royale. "I think it's a great tribute to Martin Campbell and Daniel [Craig] to have pulled it off in the way that they did. It was important to the story. We couldn't shy away from it."
Craig's first outing as Bond was a worldwide success, but even so, the franchise continues to change. Broccoli calls Skyfall as "very compelling and very contemporary," acknowledging that it's a real actor's piece for Craig and newcomer Javier Bardem. And as the Bond franchise begins to grow — expanding into every medium under the sun — her focus will always be on making the movies perfect. "We did the first video game, GoldenEye, and it attracted a whole new audience. The video games bring a younger people who have become acquainted with Bond through video games. But our focus is the movies. It takes enough of our energy." Sorry James Bond Jr. fans — no cash grabs here. For now, the meat of the 007 series will arrive in theaters, continuing to echo the world around it.
Follow Matt Patches on Twitter @misterpatches
[Photo Credit: Photo Credits: Phil Loftus/Capital Pictures/Retna Ltd; EPIX]
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The 23rd 007 installment hit British screens last Friday (26Oct12), and it has since garnered $59.5 million (£37.2 million), beating the first week takings of last year's (11) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli are overjoyed with the new record, which comes as the franchise marks 50 years since the first Bond movie, Dr. No.
They state, "We are very grateful to the Bond fans and all U.K. cinema audiences for making Skyfall the biggest opening week ever during our 50th anniversary year."
Gary Barber, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MGM, adds, "The continued record-breaking success of this film is a true testament to all involved and the global power of this 50 year old franchise."
The film, which stars Daniel Craig as the superspy, opens in the U.S. on 9 November (12).

The 23rd James Bond adventure, starring Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem, makes the 007 movies the longest running and most successful series in film history.
Skyfall opened across the U.K. on Friday (26Oct12) and is set to be released in the U.S. next month (09Nov12).
Producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli said, "We are absolutely overwhelmed with the reaction to Skyfall this weekend. It is particularly thrilling as the U.K. is home to James Bond and it being the 50th anniversary year."

"I was drunk, so if it hadn't worked out, I could have blamed it on that." Daniel Craig on offering pal Sam Mendes the chance to direct new Bond film Skyfall at a Hugh Jackman party without clearing his idea with franchise producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson first.